Oprah: Donating to Charity Wasn't Enough

NEW YORK - Frustrated with just donating money to charities,
Oprah Winfrey says she built a school for poor girls in South Africa because she wanted to feel closer to the people she was trying to help.

"I really became frustrated with the fact that all I did was write check after check," she told Newsweek magazine. "At a certain point, you want to feel that connection."

Winfrey spent five years and $40 million to build the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls outside Johannesburg.

The school for 12- and 13-year-old girls has 28 buildings on 22 lush acres. The school includes huge fireplaces in every building, a yoga studio, indoor and outdoor theaters and a beauty salon. People criticized her, saying the school is too lavish for such an impoverished country.

"These girls deserve to be surrounded by beauty, and beauty does inspire," she told the magazine. "I wanted this to be a place of honor for them because these girls have never been treated with kindness. They've never been told they are pretty or have wonderful dimples. I wanted to hear those things as a child."

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Floods NO Deterrent to Wedding

KOTA KINABALU: Floods that have taken one life in Sabah failed to stop technician Joanes Ivanrayer Paiwa and his childhood sweetheart Sarira Dadeh from getting married in style.
Joanes, 33, and his 26-year-old bride proceeded with the wedding ceremony yesterday although their Kampung Piasua homes in the west coast district of Beaufort were in half a metre of water.

"We decided to go ahead with it as we did not want the rains to spoil the ceremony that we have been looking forward to for so long,” said Joanes, who works in Singapore.

The flood victim in Pitas district has been identified as farmer Alexson Lukukan, 24, a father of three, who had gone for a swim in the fast-swelling Bengkoka River at Kampung Tingkalanun.
He was reported missing at around 9.50pm on Saturday and his body was recovered at about 6am yesterday.

More than 1,000 people had been evacuated from flood-hit areas in the northern districts of Pitas, Kudat and Kota Marudu by early Saturday, but as of yesterday afternoon more then half of them had returned home.

Floodwaters have been receding in all three districts, but the authorities remain on the alert in Pitas.

In Kampung Sundang Bukit Maidin in east coast Sandakan, which also saw heavy rains, two families escaped unscathed when a tree crashed into their wooden homes during a mudflow.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

New Year's Eve Blasts in Bangkok .... and they were not Fireworks

A spate of New Year's Eve bombings in Bangkok, including two set off shortly after midnight, killed at least three people and injured 36 others including 10 foreigners, Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin said Monday.

"We still don't know who was behind the bombings," said Apirak, who advised people to stay home unless it was necessary to go out on Monday, a public holiday. The governor said a meeting was scheduled Monday morning with Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to discuss the attacks.

Altogether seven bombs were detonated in Bangkok and one in nearby Nonthaburi province on Sunday and early Monday, Aprirak said.

In the first spate of attacks, six bombs and grenades were set off Sunday evening shortly after 6:00 pm, killing two Thais and injuring about 25 people.

Two more bombs were detonated shortly after midnight near the Central World Plaza department store in Bangkok, where a New Year's count down had been planned but cancelled.

Bangkok authorities issued warnings to revellers to cancel their New Year's Eve celebrations shortly after the first spate of attacks. Public count downs for the New Year were cancelled at Sanam Luang and the Central World Plaza.

A bomb set off minutes after midnight at the Best Seafood restaurant near Central World Plaza ripped off the leg of one foreigner and injured three others along with two Thais.

A second bomb was detonated at Central World Plaza near the spot where a the New Year's Eve Bangkok Countdown 2007 public party had been scheduled, but was cancelled by Mr Apirak.

Authorities said the second explosion wounded both foreigners and Thais passing by, killing one person.

Two other bombs were reportedly defused by police before they exploded, including one at a bar on Khao San Road, the capital's most popular place for budget travellers.

The six bombs that went off earlier Sunday after 6 pm (1100 GMT) were placed at busy Victory Monument, near a Chinese temple in Klong Toey, two police traffic box at Sukhumwit Soi 62 and another in Nonthaburi, behind the Seacon Square shopping mall in Eastern Bangkok and at a Tesco supermarket.

Initial speculation was that the bombs were the work of groups opposed to the current military-installed government after a junta ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra on Sept 19.

Thailand is undergoing a difficult return to democratic government after the popular, but allegedly corrupt, former premier Thaksin was ousted by the military. Thaksin, a billionaire businessman who held the premiership between 2001 and 2006, is in exile.

Several powerful groups, including the supporters of Thaksin, are unhappy over what they see as the military's high-handed action and the ongoing investigations into allegedly corrupt deals perpetrated by Thaksin's family and political associates.

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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]

Accidently Swallowed a Spoon while Laughing

SOME people are born with a silver spoon in their mouth - but one woman literally got one lodged firmly in her gullet.

The 26-year-old Sydney woman accidentally swallowed a teaspoon during a laughing attack while eating spaghetti.

She is understood to have gagged reflexively, but by then it was too late.

Doctors were flabbergasted by the accident when she arrived at Canterbury Hospital in Sydney's south-west.

An X-ray and gastroscopy revealed the 15cm implement stuck in her oesophagus at the top of her stomach.

Numerous medics examined the images and offered advice on how to remove the spoon, with most recommending surgery to cut it out.

But Dr Bernard Beldholm, an advanced trainee in general surgery, and Dr Alice Lee, a gastroenterologist, wanted to spare her the trauma of invasive surgery.

They eventually managed to remove it manually - albeit "with great difficulty".

The woman, who can't be named because of patient confidentiality, was placed under general anaesthetic.

In a delicate procedure, which took an hour and a half, they eased it out of her throat and mouth.




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[tags : unusual wierd bizzare]